Which farmers will benefit from emergency aid, and who will need it?
The government says it will target ‘small farmers’ for support in this crisis period — but subsectors should be studied individually
Food products and nonalcoholic beverages have been classified as essential goods, and their production, distribution and retailing will continue during the 21-day coronavirus lockdown period. As such, one could expect the impact on the agricultural sector to be minimal, but is that true?
Intuition would lead one to expect that agricultural exports will be reduced as the Covid-19 pandemic creates mayhem in the global economy. But people have to eat, and logistics and movement of goods are continuing, so food demand should hold. It is therefore difficult to assess the impact of the lockdown regulations, how they are applied and the demand effects of the pandemic on agriculture without unpacking each sector by its subsectors, to enable us to determine who the government should assist in these trying times...
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